How To Help Your Community Become A Model City

i.e., everything inappropriate for children is out of their sight and there is nothing illegal.

Educate people in your community about this issue. There are two books that will arm you with the information you need. To Strengthen the Family by JoAnn Hibbert Hamilton, available in an LDS version and a nondenominational version at www.envisionentertain, call 1-435-753-4999 or Granite Publishing, and The Drug of the New Millennium by Mark Kastleman, www.kastleman.net or call 1-800-755-9777. When you have perhaps 15 strong people ready to help is a good time to begin.
Meet with the editor of your local paper to obtain his support. This entire effort is a matter of educating people about the harm being done to children.
Approach one member of the city council. Ask him to be on your executive board. Let him sponsor a resolution. A resolution is not binding legally but it is a policy statement which helps to establish your community standard.
Contact each city council member before the presentation of the resolution and educate him on this issue so you win his/her support.
Below is a copy of the resolution. Also below is a copy of the acceptance press release if the resolution were passed, and a copy of the statement to give to the press if the resolution didn't pass. I felt it was important to remain positive.
I want to avoid conflict and confrontation and maintain positive efforts to educate about the harm that is being imposed on children. I make it a point to express confidence in the mayor, the city council, the business people and the public.
We have prepared 500 signs to be placed in people's yards right after Christmas, 1000 posters to be placed in the windows of all the businesses in Bountiful and 10,000 flyers to place in the windows of homes in Bountiful with a sheet explaining what we are doing. As the posters are placed in businesses, the owner or manager signs a statement of support.

NOTE: Once people are educated on this problem, often they do more than you ask. Our manager of our local Albertson's store started covering inappropriate magazine covers two years ago and at that time discontinued, on his own, three magazines. But now he understands the importance of what he is bringing into our community. He understands "responsible ownership." He told me last week, December, 2002, that he has now discontinued twelve magazines. The manager of Walgreens asked us for concealment covers for their magazines. We had only asked him to put up a sign in front of his store.

Other Areas of Focus:
Newspaper Support
Schools
Contacting Business Owners and Managers
Grocery Stores
Department Stores
Citizens for Families Theme Song: Protect the Children
Internet Filter Research
Recommended Books (bottom of page)
Interfaith Effort
Video/CD Rentals
Hotels/Motels
Library
Advertising
Non-profit Organization Formation: 501 (3) C
Dispersement of Pamphlet
Poster and Dialog for Businesses

Bountiful City Resolution No. 2002-11

A Resolution Promoting a Child-Appropriate Standard in Bountiful City.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BOUNTIFUL, UTAH, that:

1. Bountiful City promotes a community standard that reflects and encourages a wholesome environment for children and families.

2. Bountiful City strongly encourages all businesses, schools, and public institutions in the Bountiful area to adopt child-appropriate standards.

3. Bountiful City encourages all its citizens to become aware of this standard and to promote it for the good of the entire community, particularly for its future - our children.

PASSED this 10th day of December, 2002.

BOUNTIFUL CITY:

In The Event the Resolution Was Passed...

I am delighted that the Bountiful City Council chose to pass this resolution. Although I know a resolution is only a statement of policy, it is wonderful to have the support of the Bountiful City Council and the Mayor to serve as the base of this effort. We hope to establish a community standard where everything inappropriate for children is out of their sight and in so doing establish a model city as far as this issue is concerned. I anticipate that other cities will follow the example of Bountiful.

I think that most people in this community would agree with and support this resolution. So often people don't know how to speak out, so we are going to provide an easy way for them to do this. In the first or second week of January, hopefully at local businesses and through Churches and the schools, a yellow flyer will be made available that says, "We want to protect children by removing inappropriate materials from their sight." We hope to see the flyer posted in the windows of homes all over the city. This will be the vote of that family for that standard.

In their formative years children aren't mentally or emotionally prepared to make sound and informed judgements regarding inapproprate materials. Educators point out that they readily accept inappropriate displayed images as acceptable, without the ability and maturity to reason, and then often they act out what they have seen. Public display of inappropriate material is an intrusion on their natural development.

I compliment the business people in Bountiful who are already working on this issue.

In The Event the Resolution Was Denied...

I would like to have had the resolution passed. We are building what we call a model city where everything inappropriate for children is out of their sight. Even though it would have been wonderful to have the support of the City Council and Mayor serve as the base of this project, we will continue to work to establish a community standard. I think I know how most people in this community feel about this subject. I submit to you that the members of the City Council on a personal basis feel as we do.

Most people don't know how to speak out on this issue so we are going to provide an easy way for them to do this. In the first or second week of January, hopefully at local businesses and through Churches and the schools, a yellow flyer will be made available that says, "We want to protect children by removing inappropriate materials from their sight." We hope to see the flyer posted in the windows of homes all over the city. This will be the vote of that family for that standard.

In their formative years children aren't mentally or emotionally prepared to make sound and informed judgments regarding inappropriate materials. Educators point out that they readily accept inappropriate displayed images as acceptable, without the ability and maturity to reason, and then often they act out what they have seen. Public display of inappropriate material is an intrusion on their natural development.

I compliment the business people in Bountiful who are already working on this issue.

I might comment that in the Final Report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, p. 71, is an important statement. It says, "To keep quiet is to approve."

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